Clexical

Ep. 5: Interview with Dongryul Lee

Seoul-born Chicago based composer Dongryul Lee (이동렬 [iː doŋ ɾjəɾ], pronouns: he/him) crafts music that entwines the acoustical nature of sounds with clarity, pathos, and reinvented classical expressions. Embracing the joy of rendering ludic permutations or interstellar sonic fables, he aspires to reach the human spirit through epistemic journeys. The dual identities of his backgrounds, a Korean immigrant living in the States, a born Catholic and learned Buddhist thinker, and a composer with a computer science degree, also greatly influence his musical language. He finds inspirations in spiritual, literary, and scientific elements, encompassing a diverse range of topics from Borgesian poetics and Jungian Philosophy to Number Theory, Deep Learning, and Engineering Campanology, oftentimes employing yearlong in-depth interdisciplinary research.

Ep. 4: Interview with Miranda Cuckson

Miranda Cuckson is known for her playing of a wide range of music and styles, her organic expressivity, dexterous virtuosity, insight and programming, and love for music. Acclaimed internationally as a soloist and collaborator, violinist and violist, she performs at venues large and small, concert halls, and informal spaces.
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Miranda’s albums include Világ, featuring the Bartók Sonata along with new works; the Ligeti, Korngold, Ponce, and Piston concertos; music by American composers Finney, Shapey, Martino, Sessions, Carter, Eckardt, Glass, Hersch; her ECM Records album of Bartók, Schnittke and Lutoslawski; Melting the Darkness, an album of microtonal and electronics pieces; and Nono’s La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura, which was named a Best Recording of the Year by the New York Times. 

Ep. 3: Interview with Curtis Stewart

Praised for “combining omnivory and brilliance” (The New York Times), four-time GRAMMY Award-nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart translates stories of American self determination to the concert stage. Tearing down the facade of “classical violinist,” Stewart is in constant pursuit of his musical authenticity, treating art as a battery for realizing citizenship. As a solo violinist, composer, Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, professor at The Juilliard School, and member of award-winning ensembles PUBLIQuartet and The Mighty Third Rail, he realizes a vision to find personal and powerful connections between styles, cultures and musics. Stewart’s 2023 album of Love., a tribute to his late mother Elektra Kurtis-Stewart, has been nominated under Best Instrumental Solo in the 2024 GRAMMY Awards.

Ep. 2: Interview with Jessica Krash

Jessica Krash is a native of Washington, DC and continues to find it an interesting and challenging place to think about worldview in music and art. She was awarded the 2010 “Wammie” for Classical Composer (Washington Area Music Association’s version of a Grammy). Her work has appeared in traditional and experimental concerts and radio in the US, Europe, and Asia, including a work for dancers and saxophones on Washington’s canal in a thunderstorm.  Jessica’s 2018 chamber and vocal music CD (Albany Records) was praised by the Wall Street Journal, Gramophone, and Fanfare, was “Recording of the Month” in Voix des Arts, and was named in “10 of the Best New Releases in 2018” by The Daffodil Perspective. Her solo piano CD (Ravello/Capstone Records) was listed by Tim Page in The Washington Post and Detroit News as one of the most interesting recordings of 2006. 
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Ep. 1: Interview with Composer Shin Kim

Shin Kim is a Master student at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Professor Dr. Rubens Askenar. Prior to that, he was studying at the Korea University of Arts in Seoul with Byungmoo Lee, and for a year was student of Karlheinz Essl at the University of Arts in Vienna. In his work, he distinguishes three major themes: religion, narrative and psychological phenomena, paying great attention to making his music understandable to all audiences.
He is the winner of the George Enescu International Competition 2022 in the symphony music category.
Also, he won the 1 st prize at the concours de Genéve with his work "The song of Oneiroi". In "The song of Oneiroi", he tells the story of the dream world - and tells it to himself as the dreamer - using not words but pronunciation systems from various languages and using microphones to amplify, diversify and spatialise his music. And to make more dreamlike.